1. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to players for pre-recorded magnetic sound tapes, and in particular to a player for tape packages in a cassette or cartridge format in which each package is united with a three-dimensional character thematically related to the recording, the character having eye and mouth openings covered by translucent elements to which light pulses are applied when the recording is being played to impart animation to the character in synchronism with the reproduced sound.
In a magnetic tape sound system operating in the recording mode, the audio signal to be recorded is applied to the coil of a recording head. As the tape is advanced across the head at a constant speed, magnetization is induced in the tape in proportion to the current flowing in the coil. In the playback mode, as the tape advances at the same speed across a reproducing head, flux from the tape intercepts the pick-up coil of the head, the flux variations in the tape inducing an emf in the coil which is amplified and reproduced in a loudspeaker.
Magnetic tape is generally packaged in either a cartridge or cassette format. Many such pre-recorded tape packages are expressly designed for the children's market. A child listening to a tape recording hears sounds emanating from what is essentially a disembodied source, for the typical player has a non-representational or utilitarian form. In order, therefore, to enhance the listening experience, it is known to provide novelty-type players having a molded casing in the form of a familiar character such as Mickey Mouse or Superman.
Such novelty record players are altogether inaminate, and the character embodied thereby bears no relationship at all to the recording. Thus if a child listens to a tape recording of a story whose principal character is Superman, Wonder Woman or some other popular superhero, a Mickey Mouse novelty player would be incompatible with this recording. By the same token, a musical recording of a singer popular with children (or adolescents) such as Michael Jackson, if played on a Mickey Mouse player, would strike, as it were, a discordant note.